Doctor Who: Time and the Rani by Pip Baker, Jane Baker

exchange.
    With Mel beside him, Urak stomped and snorted impatiently. None of his elliptical quad views showed the adversaries with whom he had been sent to barter. Not that he would have accepted the conditions for the recovery of the microthermister. The Mistress Rani might believe this feckless Doctor was honourable, but what if the Time Lord was not afflicted by such a weakness? There could easily be an attempt to rescue the girl without returning the stolen component.
    A straw hat topped a rise at the far rim of the plateau.
    Urak snuffled.
    The straw hat was lifted and waved.
    Mel waved vigorously back.
    'Let Mel come towards me!' shouted the Doctor. 'I'll keep my side of the bargain.
    You'll get what you want.' He was not prepared to trust the Rani let alone this monstrosity whose origins and antecedents he had yet to discover: suffice it that the Tetrap was the Rani's acolyte and, therefore, tarred with her brush!
    He saw the grotesque, snouted head nod and Mel start forward.
    She passed, without recognition, the camouflaged drainage pipe.
    'Now, Ikona! Now!' yelled the Doctor.
    Levering himself from the pipe, Ikona placed the microthermister on the sand and sprinted after Mel. He wanted to keep a fair distance between himself and the possible range of the net-gun.
    Netting the enemy was not on Urak's agenda. Pleasing the Rani was. Collecting the microthermister, he waited until Mel had almost reached the Doctor.
    'So stupid . . .' he cackled, exposing pointed fangs in derision. ‘You are not. . . a worthy. . . opponent. . . for the Rani. . .'
    'What's he crowing about, Mel?' The question ended falteringly.
    Mel walked straight through him like a ghost!
    The Doctor had been hoodwinked.
     
    'What happened? Where's Mel?' asked Ikona. 'I saw her . . . and then she vanished!'
    'It was a hologram of Mel.' A hologram is a three-dimensional image recreated by light manipulation so that the spectator is deceived into believing the image is a solid object.
    'A hologram!' reiterated the Doctor, gazing balefully at the receding hulk of Urak. 'As substantial as the Rani's scruples!'
     
    The substance, not the shadow, was being unhooked from the rafters in the eyrie.
    Rigid, wide-eyed with fear and shouldered by a Tetrap guard, Mel was borne from the subterranean lair.
     
    'As soon as the machine's operational, increase the brain stimulation.'
    The Rani was speaking to Beyus. Having reinserted the microthermister, she was in the arcade checking the cabinets before reactivating the machines.
    'But that would take them past the danger level,' said Beyus, concerned for the incarcerated geniuses.
    'I'm in danger of missing the Solstice - which is far more critical!'
    'The computer controls will need constant supervision. I can't manage alone.'
    The eyrie grating clanged and the lumbering Tetrap carried the petrified Mel up into the arcade.
    'So I've anticipated,' the Rani retorted. 'I've got just the expert for you.'
    She snapped a capsule under Mel's nose.
    Immediately a revitalising fit of ague quivered through the girl's paralysed limbs.
    'Beyus, she's your responsibility.'
    'Mine? How can I govern her behaviour? She's not Lakertyan.'
    'Just make sure she understands the penalty of non-cooperation!'
     
    Penalty or not, Ikona and the Doctor were re-entering the lists.
    'In my opinion, returning to the laboratory is a futile exercise. I've a feeling Mel's beyond all help.'
     
    'No, the Rani wouldn't do that. She never does anything without a reason!' The Doctor was adamant.
    Ikona glanced at the slight figure manfully negotiating the precarious track. Already he could detect beneath the vulnerability an obdurate courage to be reckoned with.
    'Then why the elaborate deception? Why didn't she just release Mel?'
    'A bird in the hand keeps the Doctor away.'
    'You're probably right.' Again the placid acceptance of the mixed-up proverb.
    'Only in this case, Ikona, it'll have the opposite result!'
     
    A staccato crack from the